Fight crime by demanding more of elected leaders

To pretend that Vi Ripken's experiences are a statistical fluke is to miss yet another opportunity to come to grip with the reality we all need to face ("Aberdeen perplexed by attacks on Vi Ripken," Oct. 16). These upsetting criminal acts are not a statistical anomaly. Ms. Ripken's alleged attacker, Jesse Bowen, has reportedly had 12 prior arrests, four of which resulted in convictions, and had been out on $7,500 bail at the time of the most recent incident.

Violence is and has been spreading across our nation. Most folk will attest to this because they are either personally experiencing or observing family and friends endure this epidemic. And few of us are believing the statistics trotted out to us because we know that the numbers are being manipulated to belie the facts. Streets are not as safe as they should be in downtown Baltimore or in Aberdeen because violent criminals are released despite multiple serious infractions of the law. Our legal and penal system is supposed to be supported by the holders of government offices. However, the persons who have been elected to serve and protect are routinely failing to do their jobs. Consider the recent debacle in Baltimore Detention Center and the nonsensical response that exposure of the flagrantly corrupt jail evoked from Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Gangs, drugs, and violence, these are the key factors in why people running amok have become a plague in America. The de-funding of mental institutions hasn't helped given that mental illness is an underlying factor contributing to criminal behaviors in many cases. Classifying drug addiction as a mental health issue is critical to treating persons who suffer from the problem and for establishing preventive measures and education to reduce dependency on drugs and alcohol. As to reducing gang membership? The simple fact is that gangs wouldn't exist without the widespread opportunities created by the malfeasance at large that feeds and contributes to their record numbers.

Meantime, our war veterans are being barricaded from walking on the National Mall in Washington. If it looks like a mess and smells like a mess, it is a mess. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Please consider my perspective. I have observed while teaching in Maryland's public high schools on both shores of the Chesapeake Bay for the past 17 years that a rise in violent crime has spread out of control and unchecked in Maryland. Children have reported to me that there is violence in their streets every night in Anne Arundel County and in Baltimore. Children told their stories to me because they trusted me to care and to listen and to offer solace even if all I could do was pray and yes, break the rules of political correctness in public education and encourage them to pray. My school children told me of dishonest police patrolling their neighborhoods. Because of many ugly encounters, these youngsters came to consider the police to be their enemies instead of someone to turn to for help. I didn't want to believe them. But the stories kept coming and the newspapers eventually would catch up with what my children were telling me in advance. So I had no choice but to come to terms with the facts.

And so must we all, come to terms with the bare facts and stop pretending to be ostriches.

Re-classifying crimes to lesser offenses during plea bargaining initially helps criminals to evade full prosecution for their poor choices and actions, more insidiously, however, it also is used to marginalize crime statistics. As a result, these misrepresentative statistics depicting the safety and circumstances of our neighborhoods become fodder for politicians running for office or re-election who are pretending to have accomplished the work of governing.

There is no easy fix or solution. Our prisons cannot be places where people are locked up and the keys thrown away. Rehabilitation is a requirement, not a luxury, for a civilized society. The blame game needs to stop. It doesn't matter if you are African-American or Caucasian or anything else. We are all one tribe, one human race. And it is time to celebrate diversity and to live as one nation, under God, indivisible and with liberty and justice for all.

Fundamentally, a safe and civil society requires independent oversight with integrity in order to ensure accountability and proper management.

Given the plethora of abuses among local and high officeholders in government and the abundance of scandals plaguing our country, it is going to take fresh leadership unencumbered by existing political connections to run for every office in this nation in order to take America by the bootstraps and give it the shake out and straightening up on every level required to ensure our constituents may enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No more red states or blue states just red, white and blue states.

Come on, fellow Americans. Take it upon yourselves to get involved. It is your neighborhood that is involved. It is all of our neighborhoods that are involved. God bless us all because we certainly need God's help.